With a limited range, prolonged COVID-related supply issues and inflation triggering people to shop around for grocery discounts, many shoppers didn’t consider ALDI for more than the occasional top-up-shop.

ALDI’s opportunity was to change shopper behaviour by turning a negative perception into a positive.

The brief: Position ALDI as the first place Aussies should shop to save money on the groceries they really need.

Objectives were ambitious:

1.INCREASE FIRST-CHOICE POSITION FOR MAIN-SHOP

With the emphasis on shopping around for discounts, we needed to ensure ALDI was first-choice for the bulk of their baskets.

2.GROW SPEND-PER-BUYER

Despite our condensed range, we wanted shoppers to buy more from ALDI when they did visit, whilst out-performing high inflation.

3.ATTRACT SWITCHED SPEND & GROW SHARE

Encouraging Aussies to complete more of their shop with us, would see grocery spend flow away from competitors, increasing our share of the market.

Shop ALDI First

With a healthy dose of honesty and self-awareness around ALDI’s range shortcomings we challenged conventional retailer wisdom, telling Aussies it’s OK if they shop somewhere else. ALDI knows it’s not the only supermarket you see, and that’s cool with us, we just want to be your first.

Taking a page out of romantic films like ‘The Notebook’ to dramatise how ALDI loves their shoppers enough to let them go, knowing the savings will keep them coming back.

Inverting category paradigms, our idea not only accepts but encourages supermarket polygamy. Normalising the behaviour of shopping around, from a point of awkwardness to one of financial-savviness.

We extended the love story across TV, BVOD, OLV, OOH, print, radio, digital and social. Helping Aussies understand that at ALDI, we know we’re not your one-and-only. But, if you want to save money, you should definitely shop at ALDI first.

Qualitative research we conducted for ALDI confirmed our shoppers loved us, but were seeing other supermarkets on the side; “I buy what I can from ALDI then head to Woolies for the stuff I couldn’t get, like Roasted Sesame Mayo”.

In fact, 56% of Aussie shoppers visit two or more stores to cover all their grocery needs. It was time we acknowledged this fact and used it to our advantage. Our strategic approach was to launch a supermarket-intervention, reframing the role ALDI played in shoppers’ repertoires, from one-stop-shop to first-stop-shop.

THE STRATEGY

GET Competitor-prioritising shoppers

WHO Shop around for supermarket discounts but don’t believe ALDI can fulfil a satisfactory “big-shop”

TO Start their weekly shop at ALDI

BY Proving ALDI's near-complete offering makes it the prime shop for weekly savings.

By challenging category norms, we surpassed expectations - see confidential section for detailed results:

INCREASE FIRST-CHOICE POSITION FOR MAIN-SHOP

With a 25% increase, ALDI successfully increased first-choice consideration for main shop, forging a new place in shopper repertoires.

GROW SPEND-PER-BUYER

Whilst competitors only saw shopper spend increase in-line with inflation, ALDI’s grew by more than double this year-on-year, with every shopper spending significantly more with ALDI each month.

ATTRACT SWITCHED SPEND & GROW SHARE

The campaign helped attract a staggering level of switched-spend, with market share building to a new high. As the only major supermarket to increase penetration, frequency and units-per-trip across the campaign period, upending perceptions was working hard to shift shopper behaviour.

Our approach resonated…

“I like where you acknowledge your competitors but focus on your strengths.”

“Hilariously true”

“You can get a lot of things, but not your whole shop, so it's good to acknowledge that!”